Rep. Ayanna Pressley accused President Donald Trump’s administration of wanting Black Americans to “pick cotton” instead of political participation, as she reacted to recent Supreme Court rulings affecting Alabama and Louisiana voting maps and their impact on
Rep. Ayanna Pressley said she believes members of President Donald Trump’s administration would rather see Black Americans “pick cotton” than pick the president, her comments landing as recent court decisions have gone in the Republican Party’s favor on voting-map disputes.
Pressley made the accusation during an interview on Saturday. framing the string of rulings as part of a broader push that leaves Black voters with less influence in representation.. She pointed to a Supreme Court decision last week that. in her view. helped clear the way for Alabama to eliminate one of two largely Black congressional districts before this year’s midterms.
She traveled 1. 400 miles from her district to attend a protest in Mobile. Alabama on Saturday. describing her presence as something bigger than a single race or state.. “This is not just a fight for the Black voter or Black Americans.. This is not just a fight in defense of the South.. This is a fight in defense of our democracy,” Pressley said.
Pressley called the developments “racial gerrymandering. ” and said the response she witnessed was rooted in a belief that voters should not be allowed to choose who represents them.. “And we’re here collectively in righteous indignation,” she said.. “I have to just tell the truth: There are people in this hostile anti-Black administration that would rather Black Americans pick cotton than pick the president. than pick their congressperson. than pick a senator.”
She continued that the rulings show a desire for representatives to decide who their voters are. instead of voters determining representation.. “They want the representatives to decide who their voters are. instead of the voters determining who their representatives are. ” Pressley said.. She added that the motivation is tied to the perceived power of what she called the super majority. “and that is the Black voter and every marginalized voter.”
Her remarks follow weeks after the Supreme Court voided Louisiana’s second majority Black congressional district.. The justices. in a 6-3 ruling. found the district violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act because it relied too heavily on race.. Chief Justice John Roberts said the Louisiana district was a “snake” created along racial lines. while Justice Samuel Alito agreed the map was an “unconstitutional gerrymander.”
Pressley also said the country has to deal with the court itself, calling the Supreme Court “extremist.” She argued that the only way to counter what she described as an “anti-freedom, anti-democratic agenda” was to add more justices, saying the answer was “packing the courts.”
The Supreme Court’s Louisiana ruling came after a separate decision last week that Pressley linked to the prospects for Alabama’s congressional maps.. In the aftermath of the Louisiana decision. Trump celebrated the outcome. calling it the “kind of ruling I like.” The sequence Pressley emphasized runs from the court’s willingness to invalidate race-influenced districts to her view that the practical results are fewer majority Black districts ahead of midterms.
The tension in her comments was stark: she portrayed the rulings as a direct threat to Black political power. while the White House reaction to the Louisiana decision was celebratory.. For Pressley. the result is not only a fight over maps. but what she described as a fight over the structure of democracy itself.
Ayanna Pressley Donald Trump Supreme Court voting rights act racial gerrymandering Louisiana congressional map Alabama congressional district Mobile Alabama protest court packing